EMPOWERgmat vs GMAT Pill

Question

Hi,

Not sure if this is the right forum to post my query but here goes.

Background:
I took my exam on 13th May and scored a 650 (Q49, V30). Since then I've been self-prepping and with every MGMAT CAT I give, the scores seem to keep going down.
On my last 2 mocks I got a 640 (Veritas Free Mock on 15th Oct), and a 630 (GMAT Pill Free Mock on 23rd Oct).
My main problem is the verbal section where I've been consistently scoring in early 30s which has prompted me to enroll for a course that will help to boost the Verbal score.
DO note that I'm a working professional and plan to take my exam in a month, which will give enough time to apply for Round 2 deadlines of top 10 schools (720+ is my target score).

After a little research, I've shortlisted EMPOWERgmat and GMAT Pill as good choices but I'm confused as to which one to choose among the two.
Both of them provide a money back guarantee and both are designed around office-going people.

I also purchased the Magoosh Premium account last year but as you can tell, it wasn't very helpful. Their quant videos are amazing and very detailed but their verbal, not so much (or as I can say, didn't work out for me).
I have access to the MGMAT books, Official Guide 13 and Official Guide for Verbal Review 2016.

Any reviews about the two courses would be really helpful.

Thanks in advance!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ShristiK,

To start, a 650/Q49 is a strong score (it's right around the 80th percentile overall), so it might be enough to help get you into your first-choice Business School. To that end, it's important to define your timeline and goals, so that you can make the most appropriate decisions going forward.

1) When are you planning to apply to Business School?
2) Do you know which Schools you plan to apply to?
3) What is your score goal?

GMAC has publicly stated that a Test Taker's Official Score is within +-30 points of actual ability, so your practice scores are essentially the same as your Official Score. This means that you're fairly consistent - you do certain things consistently well, but you also tend to make the same mistakes consistently.

Most GMAT Companies offer some type of free materials (practice problems, Trial Accounts, videos, etc.) that you can use to 'test out' a product before you buy it. We have a variety of those resources at out site (www.empowergmat.com). I suggest that you take advantage of all of them then choose the one that best matches your personality, timeline and budget.

If you have any additional questions, then you can feel free to contact me directly.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear ShristiK , I'm happy to respond. :-)

This is Mike McGarry, the voice of the Magoosh math lessons. :-)

I'm sorry to hear that you didn't get the help you sought from the Magoosh Verbal. We recently have done a complete overhaul on the Verbal part of the Magoosh product----I don't know whether you still have access and can check this out. I also don't know whether you took advantage of answering all the questions and watching all the VEs for the questions: that's where a lot of teaching happens in the Magoosh product, and some students overlook that. For a big improvement in verbal, I think what I recommend in this blog will help you more than Magoosh or any other company: https://magoosh.com/gmat/2014/how-to-imp ... bal-score/ I wish you the very best, my friend. Mike :-)

ShristiK · Answer

Hi Rich,

Thank you for responding to my query.

I plan to apply to Round 2 deadlines of Wharton, Columbia, UCLA and Duke. My target score for these schools is 720 as this is the average.

Regarding your other point, my score has actually been fluctuating where quant varies from 50 to 41 and verbal from 30 to 37. This leads me to believe that there are certain regions that have not-so-consistent mistakes.
Quant is not a problem as I can do it on my own and get a decent score, but Verbal is and am particularly looking to boost that.

Thanks

ShristiK · Answer

Hi Mike! First of all, let me say that the Math videos are just fabulous. They really helped me understand difficult concepts like Probability and Combinatorics very easily. I do have one week access remaining for the Magoosh Videos and will surely look at them again. For your other question, I had religiously watched all the Verbal Videos as stated in the 3-month plan and practiced almost all the questions (RC bit was left) and saw the Text Explanations provided for questions I got wrong. I will read the journals mentioned in your blog but as there is a crunch of time, not sure to what extent it will help. Thank you for your wishes and insights! :-)

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ShristiK,

In your earlier post, you referred to 3 scores (650 - your Official GMAT score, a 640 CAT score and a 630 CAT score) and you referred to your Verbal scores as being consistently in the low 30s. This would imply a certain degree of consistency in your performances. NOW you're saying that your Quant and Verbal Scaled Scores are wildly INCONSISTENT. So which one is it? If there is other 'data' (other CAT scores, etc.) that would help to assess your situation, then we need to see it so that we can put together the proper Study Plan.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

ShristiK · Answer

Hi Rich,

Here is the list of CATs that I took. 
I had excluded the earlier ones because because it's been over a month that I took those tests.

Official GMAT- 650 (Q49, V30) on May 13, 2015
MGMAT CAT 2- 630 (Q37, V38) on 2nd Aug, 2015
MGMAT CAT 3- 670 (Q44, V37) on 24th Aug, 2015
MGMAT CAT 4- 660 (Q 46, V34) on 18th Sep, 2015
MGMAT CAT 5- 650 (Q44, V35) on 2nd Oct, 2015
Veritas free CAT- 640 (Q44, V34) on 13th Oct, 2015
Kaplan free CAT- 730 (Q51, V29) on 19th Oct, 2015 (the Q and V scores are approximates of 97 percentile and 56 percentile)
GMAT Pill free CAT - 630 (Q41, V35) on 23rd Oct, 2015

My quantitative scores stem from silly mistakes and timing (The content is not foreign to me) but the verbal scores have regularly been in the early thirties .

Thanks

Edit: Updated GMAT Pill score

GMATPill · Answer

ShristiK,
One red flag I see in your posts is...you've taken way too many practice tests. It seems with the exception of one of those tests, all of your scores have been in the same range. This tells you something. It tells that even if you continue taking dozens more practice tests, you might likely hit a plateau. So if practice doesn't make perfect, then what does?

The GMAT is not a test that an average person can "master" over time. If you're an average test taker and you need to rise above the rest to score in the top X%, you're going to need a new thinking process. That's what we focus on at GMAT Pill. How to get you to think differently, under the experience of working with a private tutor (myself) conveyed via video screen capture so you can get the first person perspective into the exam as if I were taking that test. And you're sitting right there next to me on the same journey.

That's what this is. It's a journey into thinking at a different level. And I've packaged it into a video course for your convenience. So I invite you to take a look. Oh btw, try out our platform as well, blog articles, PDFs, and so forth. We have testimonials as well -- verified by LinkedIn profiles and official score reports, emails screenshots, and audio testimonials. View all the testimonial categories here: https://www.gmatpill.com/testimonials/

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ShristiK,

Now that you've included all of your CAT scores, it's clear that there are some significant INCONSISTENCIES with how you're handling the GMAT. To score 720+, you're going to need to put together a strong performance in BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections - and that hasn't happened yet during your CATs. While your original questions focused on how best to study for the Verbal section, there's strong evidence that you need to study for BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections. The Quant 'issue' that you're facing is probably NOT just about 'silly mistakes', otherwise you would have 'fixed' it by now.

1) When are you planning to take the GMAT?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

ShristiK · Answer

GMATPill : I took a look at the Pill platform. Do you have any sample videos that I can view so that I can decide whether the GMATPill platform is actually what I'm looking for?

ShristiK · Answer

Hi Rich,

I plan to take it on 16th Nov 2015. I have already scheduled the date.
How would you suggest I go about planning the days leading to the exam?
I have taken a holiday from work for 2 weeks, starting 30th Oct.

Thanks a lot for your help!

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ShristiK,

Since your Test Date is just 3 weeks away, and the inconsistencies in your scores imply that you have developed some 'bad habits' in how you deal with the Test, you should consider pushing back your Test Date. You likely need the better part of 6 weeks (or more) to hit your score goals (since we need to define all of these issues, work to fix them AND see that overall performance improvement on your CATs).

As it stands, you could take your GMAT as planned, and then take it again (if needed) - it would just cost you another $250.

1) When you took these CATs, did you take the ENTIRE CAT each time (including the Essay and IR sections)?
2) Did you take them at the same time of day as your Official GMAT?
3) Did you do ANYTHING during these CATs that isn't realistic (skipping sections, pausing the CAT, taking longer breaks, etc.)?

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

ShristiK · Answer

Hi Rich,

I plan to go ahead and give the exam on 16th Nov if it won't affect the way schools would look at my profile and to take another exam if this one doesn't go well.
As a reply to other questions,
1) I took the entire CAT each time ( AWA and IR included)
2) I took most of them on a weekend, around 2 pm, and remaining on a weekday, around 6 pm. My official exam is scheduled for 1 pm.
3) Except the last exam, which did not have the AWA section, I did not pause or skip sections. 
It might be helpful to know that there was a lot of background noise on my MGMAT CAT 5 and Veritas CAT.

Thanks

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ShristiK,

It hasn't been mentioned yet, but that 730 CAT score cannot be correct (a Q51/V29 combo will NOT get you that high of a score - it would likely be closer to 650). Accounting for that difference, your scores essentially all revolve around 650. With your Scaled Scores, you have the opportunity to pick up points in BOTH the Quant and Verbal sections - by extension, you're probably not going to pick up all of the missing points that you're looking for in just one of the sections. As such, you really need to put in some serious work on BOTH the Quant and Verbal.

Since your initial questions were about the Verbal section, I think that you would find the EMPOWERgmat Verbal Score Booster to be quite helpful. Most of our Clients can finish that Study Plan in under a month, so it should fit your timeframe. To hit your overall score goal though, you probably need the TOTAL Score Booster - and that will take closer to 6 weeks to properly work through.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

GMATPill · Answer

Please see sample videos at the bottom of our homepage including: https://www.gmatpill.com/sentencecorrect ... ythons.mp4 https://www.gmatpill.com/criticalreasoni ... Estate.mp4 https://www.gmatpill.com/problemsolving/og/222/222.mp4 To sign up and see all that we have to offer, please go to: https://www.gmatpill.com/amember/gmatpill_order.php

ShristiK · Answer

Thanks a lot for your help Rich.
I am currently looking at how the Score Booster can help me with Verbal and doing higher level quant questions from the GMAT Club

ShristiK · Answer

Thank you for the links. I'll take a look at the sample videos

EMPOWERgmatRichC · Answer

Hi ShristiK,

It's a minor point, but an important one - when you referred to doing higher-level (re: hard?) Quant questions for practice, it's likely that that is NOT what you need right now. On your last few CATs, how often did you get a Quant question wrong because of a silly/little mistake? And how often did you get a question wrong because it was just too hard? I'll bet that most of your 'missing' Quant points are on 'gettable' questions that aren't actually that hard. So the bigger issue is likely your 'precision', not the difficulty of the questions.

GMAT assassins aren't born, they're made,
Rich

ShristiK · Answer

Hi Rich, 
Your analysis is spot on. I get anywhere between 10-11 questions wrong on quant and about 70-80% of them are silly mistakes and 10% of the problems take too long even when I know how to solve them. To avoid a majority of the silly mistakes, I have started to double check the question I copy in the notebook. However, to tackle the problems that I don't know or take too long to solve I need to practice the higher level quant questions.

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